Trying to Score (11 page)

“I didn’t know…” Elli stopped and looked back at Lucas. Fallon watched as the realization of who was standing in front of Elli sunk it. Fallon had never told anyone about Aiden’s father, but she had said once that it was some guy from California. Fallon felt like her world had just been pulled out from underneath her when Elli focused her eyes on her.

Elli Adler knew who Aiden’s daddy was.

Fallon’s eyes were wide and filled with worry as the two women stared each other down. She hoped that Elli knew not to say anything, not to utter a word about Aiden because she just couldn’t tell Lucas.

Not now, not ever.

“Um, well look at the time, I gotta go!” Fallon basically yelled as she started to back away, begging Elli with her eyes not to say anything. Elli nodded and Fallon almost fell to her knees to thank her.

As Fallon rushed off, she felt Lucas’ eyes following her every move. He made her self-conscious, and nervous. The same way he did nine years ago.

Yeah, this was not good.

Fallon laid her face in her pillow later that night. She hated crying, she did, but after the night she had there was nothing left for her to do but cry. Why did she let Lucas affect her the way she did? He basically had won the whole time they were around each other. She knew that he was trying to get under her skin, and she had let him. She let him win.

Yeah, they had a kid together but still, he didn’t even know! She had no reason to even deal with him anymore, or better yet talk to him. So why was she letting one night of seeing him affect her to the point of tears?

When her door opened, she wiped her face on the pillow before glancing over to see Audrey in the door way, still in her tutu dress. Fallon smiled sadly since Audrey looked so darn cute before moving her face back into the pillow. Audrey didn’t say anything as she tiptoed across the room, crawled into bed with Fallon and snuggled close to her.

Fallon slowly shook her head, she couldn’t speak. She couldn’t express the way her heart felt like it was breaking all over again. She thought she could be so strong through this, but she couldn’t. With just one look at Lucas, she felt like she was still the 21-year-old woman that ran all those years ago.

“Why ain’t I over him AA? Why?” Fallon said into the pillow. She wasn’t sure that Audrey heard her until she felt Audrey’s hand on her back, rubbing softly.

“I don’t know Fal.”

“I just don’t understand,” Fallon cried as she sat up looking over her. “Is it ‘cause of my secret or is it because I truly still care for him? How though? It’s been so long, and he hurt me so bad. How can I still care for him? I. just. don’t. understand.”

Audrey’s face filled with worry as she wrapped Fallon in her arms. “I feel so stupid, like a weak little whiny baby. I’m not that person. I am strong, I am amazing, I am successful. I am the best fucking mom ever! And look at me! I am a mess, cussing left and right. He fucking does this to me!”

Fallon hated that she was putting all this on Audrey, but she didn’t know what to do, who to talk to about it all. All she knew was that she was hurting and she needed someone to tell her what to do.

“Fallon, I don’t know baby. Love is tricky, intense. I don’t know what to say,” Audrey said into her hair. Fallon nodded slowly, knowing that her baby sister wouldn’t have the words to console her.

Who would?

No one knew about Lucas, no one knew what he did, no one knew the mess he could turn her into. Only she knew and only she knew how to deal with him, and that was to completely cut him out of her life.

She had to, or she was gonna go bat-shit fucking crazy.

*************************************************

If looks could kill, Lucas would have been dead at least five times that night. He didn’t know that Fallon could give such deadly looks but she could, and they kind of scared him.

Just a little bit though.

Seeing Fallon would have been everything he wanted if she would have been a little nicer. She was feisty and a little rude, but he liked it. He liked that she didn’t take his shit, he liked that she was a little angry. She had been so submissive when they were together, and now it seemed that she was standing up for herself.

And that was one hell of a turn on.

Call him sadistic but he liked a girl that knew what she wanted and how she wanted it. All he had to do was make her realize that he was the one she wanted. That he had changed, and that he could be the man she needed and trusted. He didn’t know how he was going to do it but he would.

There was only one thing bothering Lucas though, and that was the way Fallon and Elli looked at each other when he said that they had dated seven years ago. Something wasn’t right; Fallon had stared Elli down after the words were spoken, and then she did everything but fully run away from them. What was that about? The owner knew something, and he was determined to find out what it was.

The next morning, Lucas skated around the rink for the morning warm up along with his team. When he stopped by the boards for a drink, Sergei Arshan skated up beside him, also grabbing his drink. Lucas nodded towards him before smacking Sergei’s shin with his stick.

There was no way he could go out tonight even if he wanted, not that he did. He had an early morning flight to catch. He was going up to Michigan to see his mom for a couple of days. Since he was on a break before heading out on a six-game road trip, he figured using that time to see his mom would be best. He would be gone for three days and when he came back home, he planned on going to Fallon’s office. By then he figured she would be all buttered up since every day for the next week her office would be filled with presents. Little tokens of his love for her.

Fallon sat cross leg in the middle of her bed with a black box in front of her. Audrey had taken Aiden to the park for a couple hours so that Fallon could do what she needed to do, and that was to get rid of anything that reminded her of Lucas. She had already gone through all her clothes and put all his old shirts and shorts in a black trash bag, the only thing left to do was go through their box.

Fallon had started putting the box together the day after they started dating and it was filled to the brim with things from their relationship. Plane tickets, movie tickets, picture strips, bracelets, dead flower petals — everything was in that box. As Fallon dug through it, she remembered every little thing about each item and tears slowly ran down her cheeks.

Everything was so simple then.

She picked up a buddle of letters that were wrapped in a red bow and couldn’t help the grin that came over her face when she opened each one, reading Lucas’ backwards handwriting. Fallon was the only one that could decipher his writing with no problem, and she soon became the only one he wrote for. She used to love getting his letters, or his little notes. They would make her day.

As she read over one of the last letters he wrote her, she couldn’t help but wonder if he was still struggling with his dyslexia. Fallon used to work with him on his reading and writing and he had started to progress throughout their relationship, but no matter what, it was just so hard for Lucas. He had hid the condition from his family growing up and when they found out about it he was already in high school. The teachers said it was too late for him to be taught the right way, but Fallon couldn’t have disagreed more. She worked extremely hard with him whenever he would let her. Lucas was a proud man and hated showing weakness. Since he classified his dyslexia as a weakness, he wouldn’t read for Fallon much. He said she would think he was stupid, which was nowhere near the truth. Fallon thought he was the smartest, sweetest man in the world, and loved him like he was.

With a shake of her head, she threw the letters back in the box. When she moved a picture of them on the beach in Cabo, she saw the little black Arpel’s box. Her breath caught as she slowly picked the box up, opening it to see the little silver ring that held the most gorgeous pink diamonds ever. Man, how she loved that ring. It took two years for Fallon to take it off after she and Lucas had broken up. Two damn years. The day she took it off was the day she knew she was never going to tell him about Aiden, or that she would ever see him again.

Fallon toyed with the small ring, moving it from finger to finger before she slid it on her right ring finger. It still fit perfectly. As Fallon glanced down at the ring, she knew she couldn’t throw it out. She might not wear it, but how could she throw away something that was so important to her at one time in her life? Maybe she would give it to Aiden when he met the girl of his dreams; he could give it to her. Or maybe, she would just keep it. Keep it for the moments when she needed a reminder of the greatest love of her life.

Fallon slowly put the ring back in its box before placing it back in the big box and closing it tightly. She climbed off the bed and stuffed the box back under her bed before going to the bag of clothes that sat in the corner. She opened the bag and started taking out all of Lucas’ old shirts. Each one was faded, and if she held it to her nose long enough, she would get a small whiff of Lucas’ scent. A rustic smell, something woodsy and manly.

She walked over to her closet, hanging each shirt back up on the hanger that she had pulled them from. She refolded all of his old shorts and boxers, placing them back in the drawer where they belonged. Fallon had done the exact opposite of what she had set out to do that afternoon, but maybe she wasn’t supposed to forget him. Maybe she was supposed to forever have him in her heart — he was the greatest love of her life. Didn’t that mean something?

How could she throw away things from her past that molded her future? She wouldn’t be who she was today if it wasn’t for Lucas. She would still be a scared little girl that submitted to anyone, her father being the main one, but because of what she went through, she stood up to him when he told he to get rid of Aiden. Fallon didn’t think she could ever forgive Lucas for what he did, but she didn’t regret their time together. She wished it hadn’t ended but if it hadn’t, no telling what she would be like now. Lucas toughened her up, and she would always be grateful to him for that.

Fallon thought she couldn’t breathe without Lucas but in reality she could, so was it really that bad to keep things to remember him by? Yeah, he affected her the same way he did back then, but it was the first time in years that she had seen him. So she got a little crazy around him, she might as well get used to it. She knew Lucas and she also knew that he wasn’t going to stop after last night. He was going to pursue her, so she might need to learn how to deal with him again.

Fallon sat her desk the next morning, doing morning reports when her phone rang. She ignored it and went back to typing since she knew Rob would pick it up. When the phone kept ringing she glanced over at it again and wondered why Rob wasn’t picking it up.

What the hell?

Fallon reached for it, putting it to her ear before holding it with her shoulder as she went back to typing. “Fallon Parker with Rocky Top Wines speaking, how can I help you?” she said.

“I can think of a lot of things you can do to help me, Ms. Fallon Parker.”

Lucas’ honey-smooth voice filled Fallon’s ear, causing her hands to stop before she closed her eyes. Good Lord, his voice still turned her on, which was bad.

Bad Fallon! Bad!

Why the hell didn’t Rob answer the damn phone? When Fallon opened her eyes, she took a deep breath in. The whole night before she had dreamt of nothing but Lucas, and hearing his voice at nine o’ clock in the morning wasn’t helping her to get him out of her brain at all.

“I have to baby girl,” he chuckled. “Anyways, I was calling to let you know I was going out of town for a couple of days,” he said. Fallon narrowed her eyes at the computer screen, imaging it was Lucas as she sat there confused.

“Why would I care if you are going out of town?”

He chuckled again and Fallon begged her girlie parts to relax. Damn man and his sexy chuckle!

“I just wanted you to know, in case you needed to get a hold of me. I’ll be in Michigan, seeing my mom, so if you need me just call.”

Fallon was dumbfounded. Was she being punked? What the hell was his deal? “Okay for one, I don’t care what you do, for two, wish your mother well for me, and for three, I will
not
be needing you,” Fallon said with a little more sass than needed but she had to get her point across.